With modern technology comes modern surveillance, and the only way to keep yourself from being vulnerable and exposed online is with a VPN.

The governments around the world are engaged in actively restricting what we can watch, read and search for online. At the same time, they are actively collecting information about us and our activities. 

Within ten years, it’s highly likely that anyone who goes against the mainstream narrative and opposing the group think will be considered as a “person of interest,” especially if you live within the 14 countries that keep a record of your online activities.

This is why I highly recommend you to be using a VPN (virtual private network) to secure and anonymize your online activities and browsing the web. The good news is that VPNs are cheap, really cheap, costing just a few dollars a month.

What Is A VPN?

A VPN (virtual private network) is a server that’s between you and the internet which encrypts and hides all your web activities between your computer and the internet. It essentially creates a secure connection that no one else can spy on. The VPN has a direct connection to your ISP, which can then no longer identify your internet usage and activities.

When you are using a VPN, your internet service provider has no clue what you are doing, the only other party who knows what you are doing is the VPN provider itself. A reliable VPN provider never keeps logs of their customers’ activities online. And if they do, I recommend you choose one that doesn’t. 

Whenever you are visiting websites online, that website will record your VPN’s IP address, not your actual IP address that is connected to your home modem and username. When you are using a VPN it also offers another layer of protection in that your actual IP address is not saved across the internet servers which can later be used in hacking or virus attacks. Essentially having a VPN when browsing the web is like having a shield around you.

VPNs were first designed to be used by remote workers working for large corporations off site. VPNs provided a secure encryption and were reliable to keep data safe. Later on, VPNs were used in countries where there was a heavy censorship and political unrest.

Authoritarian governments wanted to censor and restrict what its citizens could access on the internet. In the western countries, if you go against the mainstream media, according to them, “you are a thought criminal of the democracy”. Your web searches and other activities online are being extensively logged by your internet service provider as well as some other government security agencies.

Countries That Actively Log Your Internet Use

There is an agreement between 5 countries to share spying data on all of their citizens. This unhealthy alliance is called Five Eyes (might as well call it the spying All-Seeing Eye). They also help each other with technical and hardware analysis to spy on people from across the world. These countries are:

• Australia
• Canada
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• USA

Edward Snowden has mentioned that nine more countries have agreed to join the All-Seeing Eye membership:

• Belgium
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Spain
• Sweden

If you are “lucky” enough to live in any of these countries, that means there is technology and man power to directly track your web usage and other online activities.

But wait, it gets more interesting. Your government can also sell you out to another country that is part of the alliance.

For instance, if you live in Australia, the Australian government can share your private information with the USA government in return for other data and intelligence. And even if you are not a citizen of the 14 All-Seeing Eye countries, you can still be tracked and traced if you visit due to the servers hosted inside them.

Use VPNs That Are Based Outside of Data Retention Countries

Data retention laws require ISP and VPN companies to keep accurate and up to date logs of their customers. The All-Seeing Eye countries all adhere to these laws. If you get a VPN account in the United States, you may be safe against the hackers but still have all your web data logged within a VPN company that must (by law) give your data to the government agencies when formally requested.

And if you think it doesn’t happen, take a look at this hacker that was arrested for using a VPN based in England.

To put it simply, if you want to be safe and anonymous while using a VPN service, your VPN needs these features:

• 100% No data logging of internet traffic
• 100% No logging of customer details (name, email, phone, address, bank etc)
• Hosted outside of the 14 All-Seeing Eye countries
• Uses OpenVPN protocol

And even though VPNs will help to guard you in most situations, you may still be identified through cookies and Javascript.

Google Analytics can also help to identity users online. The only TRUE proven way to keep yourself anonymous is to use a VPN with a laptop that has never been linked to your personal details. VPN is a must have for all who are serious about security and anonymity online but extra steps should be taken for a peace of mind.

What VPN I Recommend

I personally use NordVPN. I tried a few others but they did not offer a reliable Australian server and that was my primary goal. NordVPN is easy to use, it’s fast and it’s very reasonably priced as well. However, I paid about $90 during a special offer on Nord VPN for two years and that works out to be $45 per year. You really can’t beat that.

And this is what ExpressVPN has to say about the data retention laws:

NordVPN does not keep your internet usage log files and that makes me feel happy.   

There are many other VPN providers, so feel free to do your own research.

Final Word

Even though using a VPN might seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, the reality is that it provides you that extra layer of protection and security. If tomorrow the governments decide to go after some particular website users, why don’t we make it harder for them to find us online in the first place?

Your friend,

Alex

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